Just finished a new kaleidoscope. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Archive for February, 2006
New Kaleidoscope
Monday, February 27th, 2006Kaleidoscope Article
Friday, February 24th, 2006Nice article on a shop called Kaleidokites and their One-of-a-kind Kaleidoscopes.
There’s an unrequited love behind every handmade kaleidoscope in Kaleidokites, a Eureka Springs shop.
The artists often use the same high-tech metals and glazings deployed by space shuttle engineers to create kaleidoscope patterns resembling fireworks and meteors on a night sky. Yet the toys are labor-intensive and, like any Old World craft, their worth relies on the artist’s hand and mood.
Finding Your Own Style
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006Lately, I’ve been thinking I need to stop reading so many magazines and looking at other peoples’ work, and start concentrating on finding my own style. The first couple years after I found polymer clay, I was rather like a sponge – I read anything and everything I could fine, tried all the new techniques, and every variation I could think of.
I know a few things about my elusive style… It’s not overly fussy or ornamented. Everytime I make a piece that is, I’m not terribly happy with it. I can look at my past pieces and identify the elements that are me.
Sculpting natural flowing forms is me – animals, vines, reeds and flowers, seaweed, mermaids and dragons. I love Art Nouveau. Faux ivory is me – I love the way a sculpture looks in a solid color and unless it is done very well color or painting can make something look cheap or tacky. (If it IS done well it’s wonderful but painting is not my strong point) Adding color with diluted inks for a pastel, water color effect might be me but I need to investigate that. Mica shift isn’t really me even though I like it. Irridescent mica powders might be me or just might be a crow’s fascination for shiny objects.
Antiquing, texture, ancient looking and imperfect surfaces are me. I admire precision in other peoples work and I can do it if I want to, but I actually like my fingerprints on a piece. They make it seem more real somehow. And they add a great surface for picking up antiquing 
Pens are not me although I still make them every now and then. Jewelry is me, but mainly because I fall in love with my miniature sculptures and want to bring them with me. Kaleidoscopes are me because I am fascinated by them – by the idea of creating beauty both inside and out. I haven’t done many pure sculptures and I’m not sure why. I think that might be me but I need to find out. Wall pieces, vessels? I don’t know.
Eyes, and expressions and curving poses are me – or at least who I want to be me. I want to be able to sculpt like Katherine Dewey or Boehm when I grow up. So maybe that’s what I need to concentrate on.
Art Helps Healing
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006Article on how art (including polymer clay) helps those suffering from mental illness. Read the article.
‘‘Art, in its various forms, helps most all people transcend the drudgery of everyday life,†Scott Rose, executive director of the Way Station, said. ‘‘For people suffering from mental illness, it can help them keep their heads above the pain.â€
Sculpey Firm
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006Polyform has a couple new clays out… I bought some of their Super Sculpey Firm a couple months ago and really like it.
From their website:
NEW!! Many Sculptors desire an extra firm clay that can be “carved” and used for projects that require fine details. Super Sculpey FIRM is the extra firm sculpting clay that is gray in color, allowing sculptors to create fine details and photographers to catch these fine points on film. Unique in both form and color, this new sculpting clay brings creative options to the sculpting world.
This little guy was my 5 minute doodle, just to get used to the feel of the clay. It’s a bit firmer than Premo (my usual sculpting clay) but it’s certainly workable without trouble and the firmness helps it keep its shape. Premo is just a bit sticky, but this clay isn’t, which means you leave less fingerprints. I added pieces on, squished it around, etc, etc, and it’s wonderfully smoothable. It’s a great sculpting clay.
I was very happy with it and will definitely use it for anything where I don’t care about the final color. I do alot of bas relief sculpting which I later mold, so it will be perfect for that. Below are a couple giraffes I did. The one on the left was the first – I like it but the eye and expression could be better. I really like the pose on the second one but the neck could be a bit more fluid. And the third is still raw with only the basic shape roughed out. Can you tell I’m a perfectionist? 
I may mold the first two and then try another version where I fix the problems.
Dave’s Dragon
Saturday, February 18th, 2006This little guy was made by my husband Dave – the very first thing he’s sculpted in polymer clay. I was making the dragons for the swap, and we were hanging out together and he decided to take my dare to make a dragon.
I started to show him Christi’s dragons, but he took one look, made the basic body shape, found some model screws for eyes, sculpted the face, decided it needed face whiskers (what are those called anyway?), added purple horns and accents, etc all on his own. I helped a very little bit with the feet but he added the individual purple toenails
Christi Friesen Dragon Swap/Book
Friday, February 17th, 2006I don’t join many swaps – I tend to get busy and I’m afraid I’d miss the deadline. But when Lynne mentioned at our guild meeting that she was hosting a dragon swap with Christi Friesen’s style, I couldn’t resist. I love sculpting dragons anyway and I’ve been admiring Christi’s work recently.
So I checked out her site, and studied all the gorgeous work she has there. Then I dug out my stash of gem beads and ended up creating these little guys. They have garnet eyes and some also include citrine, amethyst, pearls and sea urchin spines. The sea urchin spines inspired the color combination. The hardest part was deciding which one to keep for myself!
While I was on Christi’s site, I had noticed the new dragon book she has out. And since I had had so much fun and learned quite a bit just from looking at her work, I figured I could at least send her the $11 bucks for the booklet Especially since I felt so weird about blatantly copying another artist’s style – even for a swap she knew about. I’m the type who never makes an exact copy of a project that I find in a book or magazine because it wouldn’t be mine.
I’m very glad I got the booklet. The whole thing is visually wonderful with full color dragons and step by step photos on every page, and the writing is witty and entertaining. I picked up some tips that will help me with my own sculpting and really enjoyed the eye candy. She also has a few of the sweetest dragon illustrations – I’d love to see a line of greeting cards or a childrens book using them. She covers sculpting one dragon from start to finish and shows variations on eyes, tails, wings, etc to inspire you. Then there are short sections on making stand alone sculptures, cabochons, vessels, etc. You could definitely learn to sculpt some very nice dragons with this book.
I’m just hoping that I didn’t pick up TOO much of Christi’s style, I can see that it could get addicting I’m already thinking of trying gem eyes for some of my own sculpted critters to see if it would give them the same depth I liked in the dragon eyes.
Article on Branding Your Website
Thursday, February 16th, 2006I came across this article which seemed related to my previous entry…
It briefly discusess three steps in branding your website – Analyze, Clarify, Strategize. It’s not specifically related to art sites but most of the principles are the same
Promote your site
Thursday, February 16th, 2006Nichol from Mossy Creek Designs (Check out her great fossil beads) sent me her link the other day and asked for other suggestions on where to promote her site. It got me thinking about the whole topic again so I thought I’d write about it. Then I’ll have to review the list and see what else I should be doing with my own site
First of all take a look through your site and decide if it’s ready to share. Do you just want people to see your work? If so, do you have nice clear images and some descriptions about each piece? Everybody has to start somewhere (you should see my first site!!) but I see a number of websites where they have three very dark, small images and I really can’t tell what I’m supposed to be looking at.
Are you trying to create an online business and sell your work? Then make sure you have your prices clearly shown, an easy way for people to contact you, an explanation of how to pay, your shipping policies and charges, return policy, etc etc. Make it easy for people to order and get their questions answered or they’ll just wander off.
Your art should be the main focus and decoration for the site. This is something I’m in the process of improving on my own site – it’s been awhile since my last major update and I want to feature some of my newest work more prominently. You don’t need textured backgrounds, lots of clip art, seven different font colors, etc to dress up your site It will just detract from your work. And whatever you do, don’t add music!! This is a real pet peeve of mine – it is so annoying (and potentially embarrassing if you’re surfing at work during lunch) to click on a link then then have music suddenly blaring at you. If you really think that music would add to your site, add a button that people can CHOOSE to click on if they want to listen. If you’re trying to sell your work, then your website shouldn’t be about you and your preferences – it should be about making your customers comfortable and showing them why and how they can purchase your art.
Depending on your target audience, try joining some forums – clay forums such as polymerclaycentral.com or pcp on Yahoo, beading and jewelry forums, etc – Be a contributing member and always keep your web address in your signature on all your posts and emails. Don’t be pushy, but if you want people to visit, a friendly “Here’s my site, tell me what you think” post is usually ok. (Look through the old posts and forum policies to make sure first)
Whatever you do, don’t join any of those link exchanges with websites which are nothing but pages and pages of links. They try to tell you that exchanging links with them will improve your search engine ranking but you’re much more likely to be hurt by it. You’re better off doing searches for individual sites with content that is related to your own. Take a look at their links page and see if your site would fit, then send them a personal email and ask politely if you can exchange links. DON’T try to submit your polymer clay link to someone who only links to deep sea fishing sites or abstract metal sculpture I get quite alot of link requests for foreign hotels and casinos – I just delete their emails.
If you want to do some more reading on search engines, keywords, and online business check out http://tools.devshed.com/. They have numerous helpful articles you can browse through.
This is a good forum on the whole business of art and craft – it’s
worth reading through the past posts and then asking for suggestions:
The Switchboards
News on Polymer Clay
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006Have you ever seen any of the Dinotopia artwork? Well, James Gurney makes models for his dinosaurs out of Sculpey to use as references. Read the article
This article on Turning a Hobby or Passion Into a Business mentions Nancy Bundy of Affinity Clay.
The article points out that you have to know the business, but you also have to have heart and passion for what you’re doing. A tip from the article:
6. Have fun. Once you lose your passion or drive, what made you go into this in the first place, you’re going to lose business.
That’s good advice – whether we clay as a business or not! Stick with what you love